Even though USA Equestrian (and the American Horse Shows Association before it) has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the National Hunter/Jumper Council independent, the council is about to die. Ever since its creation in 1996, the USAEq leaders have said they wanted the council to be independent, but we never achieved independence. Why?

Why have so many top hunter people thrown up their hands in frustration and walked away? Because, if your ideas aren’t part of this administration’s format, you get removed from committees or chastised until you finally give up.

The people who’ve attended the USAEq conventions and tried to work hard for the betterment of our sport have been replaced by people who’d go along with the present administration. At the outset, we were told to speak out. But slowly each person who did speak out ran up against a wall.

So now the hunters are cruising on a ship with no captain and no direction.

Too many questions have been left unanswered and there are too many personal vendettas from the top of the current USAEq regime.

All of us as members were told that we had to attend committee meetings or conference calls. I have served on four committees for the past five years, and certain committee people have never been to a meeting or been on a conference call. In fact, some aren’t in the horse world at all.

Five years ago, I wrote a Forum for the Chronicle about apathy in the hunter world, and now we’re facing it full force. It’s time to put egos aside and get down to some hard work. Most people feel that it’s OK to sit back and let someone else do the work. But it’s not OK now. If you`re interested in the hunter world, now is the time to roll up your sleeves and give your sport the help it deserves.

For the past 20 years, hunters have competed for the same prize money while entry fees, braiding fees and stall fees have increased each year. We exhibitors have even allowed one Midwest show to charge us $50 just to enter the schooling area.

Now is our chance to start anew. We need our own hunter/jumper convention, held at a time of year when hunter people don’t have any real excuses to not attend. Why not be like the breeds and disciplines that actually have fun at their conventions and discuss and vote on rule changes that benefit their sports? The Saddlebred people have skits in which all the trainers participate. It’s just one reason that many people attend their convention each year—they go there to enjoy themselves.

No other discipline has its convention when their four biggest circuits are about to begin. Why can’t we have our convention in December, our down time? What a concept it would be to have a great trade show that would allow us to compare various products in one place. Maybe we could learn about workman’s compensation or better ways to insure ourselves.

And let’s have the people who pass the hunter rules be people who are active in the hunter world. The Saddlebred, Arabian, eventing and dressage groups come to the USAEq convention with their rules in order, ready to be voted on. But not us. We’re still wrestling with them at the end of the convention because we haven’t debated them until then.

The National Hunter/Jumper Council was meant to represent us, from the grassroots up. We need a hunter/jumper council, and we need it to be independent of the new national federation that’s being formed in July.

When the new federation, or national governing body, is formed, it should bring that painful issue to an end. I think we can all agree that it has taken up too much time, too much money, and left other parts of USAEq to flounder. Which group is the NGB (as recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee) affects about 150 Olympic athletes a year, as opposed to the 20,000 hunter members of USAEq.

The new Hunter Committee’s format is supposed to be the chairmen of each of the 12 zones, plus the chairmen of the five committees under it. But this doesn’t automatically mean this new Hunter Committee will stand on its own to serve the hunter community. And what happens to the grassroots jumper divisions?

Despite all these problems, some people around the country have accomplished some important things. Here are a few examples of groups that require a reasonable membership fee and have come to be, despite the lack of USAEq backing.

The American Hunter-Jumper Foundation has put a great hunter classic together (Fla.), and this same group has long been part of the Capital Challenge Horse Show (Md.) with its classics and unique World Championship Hunter Rider class for professionals.

The Pony Hunter Finals and the Junior Hunter Finals are going strong. Both are USAEq trophies, but each year different shows apply to manage the championships. The Junior Hunter Finals are coming up on their third year. With an East Coast and West Coast finals, $10,000 to compete for, and multiple points, these finals seem to have a future in the hunter world.

The Pony Hunter Finals have been a success for about three decades because of very hard work from the various pony committees and many committed trainers for about three decades. This event moves to different parts of the country, and each year the new pony finals group tries to surpass the previous one with parties and other special touches.

The North American League has found a home for their finals at the Pennsylvania National for the adult and children’s hunters. Qualifying classes are healthy all year. And now the Marshall & Sterling Classics have their own finals coming in September at a world-class facility

The International Hunter Futurity has been going for many years now and has found its niche for our young horses and breeders.

Our pinnacle of horse shows—the National Horse Show, held at what’s probably our country’s best-known sports arena, Madison Square Garden in New York City—came to an end in 2001 because of poor attendance and rising costs. On to a successful run at Wellington (Fla.) it went last year, and now there is enough money to run not one but three National Horse Shows—one in New York, one in Las Vegas and then Florida.

I am completely astounded. Maybe, though, this is a good thing. Bill and Frank Madden have come up with a new show in Syracuse, N.Y., on the first weekend of November that may take the place of the National. Maybe we’re headed into a new era of year-end events that will take on a life of its own for the hunter world.

It’s time to circle the wagons and protect the long, hard work of so many who tried to make the National Hunter/Jumper Council into a voice for the hunters. We need to stand on our own, to vote on rule changes that are meaningful and that will help make our hunters stronger. Now is the time to become involved, before it’s too late.

Let’s put aside our personal agendas and make something positive happen in the hunter world.